Life in the fast lane suites Welsh Rally ace Elfyn Evans as he rises the ranks of the FIA World Rally Championship

Elfyn Evans is seen during the FIA World Rally Championship 2015 in Leon, Mexico

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Just nine years after taking up the sport, Elfyn Evans has gone from being a service manager in the family garage business to one of the top drivers in the FIA World Rally Championship, writes Anthony Woolford.

In 2014, the 26-year old from Dolgellau became a fully-fledged M-Sport World Rally Team driver. Now driving one of the best rally cars money can buy, there are high-speed adventures ahead in Monte Carlo, Mexico, Argentina and Australia.

Screaming fans, autograph sessions and airport lounges is a far cry from booking a Fiesta in for an MOT.

You’d forgive him for either cracking under the pressure or moving to Monaco and adopting an instant superstar lifestyle. Evans has done neither.

Hard-working, honest, modest, talented, determined and staggeringly fast. Evans certainly is a chip off the old block.

His father, former British champion Gwyndaf – who made fleeting, yet brilliant, forays into the WRC – was of course Elfyn’s inspiration.

Evans Jnr started rallying in 2006, aged 18, in a Nissan Micra, and won the UK and Irish Fiesta Sporting Trophy titles two years later. It wasn’t until he became British Junior Rally Champion and Pirelli Star Driver in 2010 that Elfyn even started to consider rallying as more than fun.

After a year in the British Rally Championship (winning two rounds and finishing second in the series), Elfyn moved into the WRC in 2012 – where he won the WRC Academy.

The prize was five world rallies in a Fiesta WRC2 car in 2013, plus a job at M-Sport.

“Rallying was never the plan. The plan was to always be in the family business and I never really envisaged leaving,” admits Elfyn. “Moving to Cumbria in 2013, from being a service manager to being a new boy in a company of 200 people, was like starting from the ground up.

“I arrived at M-Sport half as a prize-winning driver and half as an apprentice. I had to make the most of my opportunity.”

Elfyn continued to excel, winning his class on Wales Rally GB and finishing sixth overall on Rally Germany. His big break came mid-season, when he made his Fiesta RS WRC debut on Rally Italy, finishing sixth.

“When I came to M-Sport, there were no guarantees of anything beyond the WRC Academy prize drives and some testing in the Fiesta R5,” said Eflyn.

“I had to make the most of that first full WRC season.”

Evans will be competing on home turf later this year when Wales Rally GB takes place on November 12-15.